Entertainment
Shudder Gets Ultimate Sci-Fi Horror Remake Masterpiece On Streaming
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Every once in a while, a classic horror flick like John Carpenter’s The Thing makes its rounds on streaming and reminds us just how ahead of its time it was by elevating such a simple story line with next-level creature effects. Now that The Thing is streaming in all of its violent and nihilistic glory on Shudder, you can see for yourself just how tense and nauseating it is for yourself.
From the remote Antarctic wilderness to the looming and always building sense of paranoia that drips from every single sequence, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sci-fi horror film that will make you want to test the blood of everybody living in your house before going to bed just to be safe. Or, if you’re anything like me, your next viewing of The Thing on Shudder may or may not have you reading Amazon reviews for flamethrowers.
Why It Works
Though The Thing predates Predator by five years, both films have one thing in common that make them superior to their contemporaries, and it’s the sense of routine and camaraderie from an experienced crew that’s disrupted by external alien forces. Kurt Russell’s R.J. “Mac” MacReady has a rapport with the rest of the research crew that effortlessly lets the audience know how these guys generally trust each other and get along in any other circumstance before the events that take place in The Thing, now streaming on Shudder.
When an American team’s Antarctic research station is raided by a Norwegian helicopter (they’re not Swedish, Mac!), Mac and Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart) decide to fly over to the attacker’s station to see exactly what set them off. Their initial assumption is that the Norwegians had a case of isolation-induced cabin fever, and for reasons unknown wanted to snipe out one of the many sled dogs living on the American base. It doesn’t take long for Mac and Dr. Copper to find a severely burnt corpse that appears to be a human in an suspended stage of mutation after getting incinerated by the Norwegian crew.
Looking for a logical explanation, Mac and Dr. Copper bring the corpse back to their base of operations, along with whatever research the Norwegians have compiled before things went south. Senior Biologist Blair (A. Wilford Brimley) confirms that the corpse is human despite its deformities, but has a change of heart when one of the station dogs violently mutates while locked in the kennel. The crew now knows they’re dealing with some sort of “Thing” that takes on the shape of its host in order to assimilate and eliminate any living being that can host its DNA, and they shudder at the implications.
While there are initially some doubts that they’re dealing with an alien life form, it’s hard for everybody to ignore the buried alien spacecraft that the Norwegians uncovered before they went on their rampage.
An Exercise In Futility
The Thing presents a moral dilemma that needs to be immediately addressed. Blair, growing in his paranoia, makes the executive decision that the Thing’s contamination and assimilation efforts need to remain isolated after predicting that whatever life form they’re dealing with can take over the entire planet in just a few years if let loose across the globe. He destroys the radios and sleds, and kills the remaining dogs to make sure nobody can escape.
Armed with flamethrowers and enough explosives to blow the research station sky-high, the crew is all but certain that they’re not going to survive the winter. When Bennings (Peter Maloney) and Norris (Charles Hallahan) get infected, the surviving crew’s paranoia gets the best of them because they have no true way of knowing who else is infected by the Thing. Though Mac and Childs (Keith David) have more than enough reason to not trust each other at this point in the ordeal, they really don’t have a choice but to put their heads together in their survival efforts.
Next-Level Creature Effects
Emotional and existential turmoil aside, The Thing shocked everybody upon its 1982 release because of how ahead of its time it was with its creature design and their stop-motion movements, which still hold up when you stream it on Shudder. Special effects designer Rob Bottin required a budget of $1.5 million (one tenth of The Thing’s entire production budget), and used a mix of chemicals, food, rubber, and mechanical parts to bring the eponymous Thing to life in its various grotesque permutations. If you’re somehow seeing this John Carpenter classic for the first time in 2025, you may not believe that you’re watching a 43-year-old film because of how well done the practical effects are executed.
A Certified Cult Classic
The Thing is one of those creature features that actually benefits from showing its monster on screen, and there’s no shortage of blood, ectoplasm, saliva, and bone to get this point across. As each mutation gets more intense, so does the sense of real fear from its principal cast that is made all the more convincing by the frigid temperatures on set, which in all likelihood kept the adrenaline levels high during production, giving the film an air of authenticity that I haven’t seen replicated so beautifully since.
You can stream The Thing right now on Shudder, and I strongly recommend that you do so next time you want to see the world burn. And if you want to explore The Thing further, the GenreVision podcast does an excellent breakdown that you wont want to miss.
Entertainment
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for May 3, 2026
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition will require some knowledge of popular U.S. sports and pop culture.
As we’ve shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication’s sports coverage. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes before the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: In Good Shape
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Green: Current NFL Head Coaches
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Blue: Famous Sports “Curses”
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Purple: Starts of Big Ten Names
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections: Sports Edition #586 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
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In Good Shape: AGIL, ATHLETIC, FIT, STRONG
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Current NFL Head Coaches: COEN, GLENN, REID, RYANS
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Famous Sports “Curses”: BAMBINO, BILLY GOAT, MADDEN, SI COVER
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Starts of Big Ten Names: BOIL, BUCK, CORN, HAWK
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
The DJI Mini 5 Pro drone is $500 off right now at Amazon — save on this content creator favorite
SAVE $500: The DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Combo is on sale for $1,099 at Amazon. That’s $500 off the list price of $1,599.
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What’s going to happen to the drone market in 2026? Due to legislative pressure on DJI imports in the U.S., there is so much uncertainty at the moment. We expected stock issues by now, but we’re actually seeing strong discounts on some of the best drones in the DJI range.
The DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Combo is on sale for $1,099 at Amazon. That’s $500 off and close to the record-low price.
The DJI Mini 5 Pro offers a huge 1-inch CMOS sensor, so whether you’re shooting 50MP stills or 4K/120fps slow-motion, the dynamic range more than delivers. The DJI Mini 5 Pro also makes use of forward-facing LiDAR that powers the new Nightscape Omnidirectional Sensing, meaning it can dodge branches, power lines, and buildings even when you don’t have eyes on your drone.
This popular drone offers 42GB of internal storage, meaning you can actually capture a full session of 4K footage without needing an external card as backup. That can have a massive impact for content creators.
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Save $500 on the DJI Mini 5 Pro this weekend.
Entertainment
Put multiple AI models to work at once with this $80 tool
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Right now, you can streamline your AI workflow with a lifetime subscription to 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan for only $79.97 (reg. $540) through May 10.
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Imagine seeing results from dozens of popular AI models in one window, with no tab-hopping or copying and pasting required. That’s what 1min.AI offers — a one-stop-shop for all your AI needs.
With 1min.AI, you can see responses from major AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, and more, all in one spot.
Compare them all and easily find the best answer. You can get help with coding, video editing, image generation, answering simple questions, and much more. Just always give things a human once-over, because edits might be required.
Not only does 1min.AI let you consolidate your AI workflow, but it also saves you money in the long run. This lifetime subscription allows you to pay once and avoid not only monthly subscription fees, but also the cost of accessing multiple models.
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Lock in major savings with a lifetime subscription to 1min.AI’s Advanced Business Plan for only $79.97 through May 10.
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